Picker-nozzle for pneumatic cotton-picking machines.



PATENTED JULY 9, 1907.

WQK. DANA.

UMATIG COTTON PIGKING MACHINES.

PIGKBR NOZZLE FOR PNE APPLICATION FILED JULY 26, 1906.

. ,isl SATES ENT FFIU..

WOODBURY K. DANA, OF'WESTBROOK, MAINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 9, 1907.

Application filed July 26,1906. SerialNo. 327,836.

To all whom 'it may concern:

' Be it known that I, WOODBURY K. DANA, a citizen county of Cumberland and State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Picker-Nozzles for Pneumatic Cotton-Picking Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to improvements in the nozzles in pneumatic cotton-picking machines, and, generally speaking, its object is to provide a new and improved nozzle by which the cotton will be more certainly detached from the husk by the inrushof air into the nozzle. I

As is well known, a number of pneumatic cottonpicking machines have been devised, such, for instance, as is shown in Letters Patent to me No. 564,974 of August 4, 1896.

.Generally speaking, these cotton pickers consist of a chamber, in which a vacuum or partial vacuum is produced by an exhaust fan suitably placed, or other appropriate mechanism, and from which chamber lead one or more flexible tubes. One of these machines being placed in the field and the fan or other vacuumproducing mechanism being set into operation, an inblast of air through the tubes into the chamber is caused by the production of a partial vacuum in said chamber. It is the design in their operation that when the end of one of these devices is presented to a boll of cotton, the inrush of air striking against the cotton boll should detach the cotton from the husk and carry it through the tube into the chamber and either deposit it there or carry it thence to a suitable receptacle, as might be de sired.

Machines of this character are so common in the art that it is believed it is not necessary to illustrate or further describe them in so far as the purposes of the pres ent invention are concerned. Such -machines, however, in which merely the end of the tube is presented to the cotton boll do not work satisfactorily because of the well-known character of the boll of cottonand the relations between the cotton and the husk. The husk is so formed as to tend to deflect away from the cotton any air striking upon it directly and to prevent the separation of the cotton from the husk by the wind; and this prevents the certain separation of the cotton from the husk, as has been said, by the presentation thereto of the ordinary nozzle of the pneumatic picker.

With this fact in view, a number of nozzles have been devised of various structures in which devices have been employed which would engage the cotton and separateit from the husk by a manual operation after whichthe cotton would be drawn into the tube and into the chamber by the inrushing air.

It is the object of my invention to provide a new and improved form of nozzle which by directing the current of air upon the cotton boll in different directions as the air rushes into the tube will overcome this difliculty and detach the cotton from the boll. I accomplish this object as illustrated in the drawings and hereinafter described. That which I believe to be new will be set forth in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1 is a top view of my improved nozzle; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the nozzle and a portion of the flexible tube; and Fig. 3 is a modification, being a longitudinal section of the nozzle.

Referring to the drawings,4 indicates a flexible tube, which is adaptedto be connected with a pneumatic cotton-picking machine of the class that I have above described. Astliese machines are well known, and as any approved form maybe used, and, furthermore, as the vacuum chamber and fan, or other devices form no part of my present invention, it is believed that it is not necessary to show or describe them here. It is enough to say that the tube may be attached to any appropriate form of vacuum chamber cotton picker.

5 indicates an innertube' preferably formed of metal, which is inserted into the tube 4 andsecured thereto by binding wire '6, or in any other appropriate Way.

7 indicates a nozzle, which is of somewhat larger internal diameter than the external diameter of the in-. nor tube 5, and which is provided on its interior with a series of ridges 8 secured thereto and whose inner edges bear upon the exterior of the tube 5' so as to hold the outer tube or nozzle 7 in position leaving a peripheral space betweenthe inner tube and the outer tube. The outer tube 7 is preferably slid upon the end of the innertube 5 so that it may be adjusted thereon and is preferably placed so that its outer or engaging end is somewhat beyond the outer end of the inner tube 5'.

9 indicates a peripheral flange integral with or in any appropriate manner secured to the outer or engaging end of the outer tube or nozzle 7. When this nozzle is applied to a boll of cotton, as is indicated in Fig. 2, the air which enters the tube 5 will rush in from a number of directions, as is indicated generally by arrows in Fig. 2. The air will rush in not only directly in line with the tube but at an angle thereto; a current of air being deflected by the flange will tend to rush around the flange and strike directly upon the boll; another In Fig. 3 I have shown a modified form of my i proved device, in which 4' indicates the flexible tube. 10 indicates a nozzle adapted to enter the outer end of the flexible tube 4' and-secured therein in any appropriate manner. 12 indicates a circular peripheral flange iorin'ecl upon or secured to the outer end of the engaging tube 1 0.- When the outer or engaging erid of thisnozzle is presented to the cotton boll, as shown in Fig. 2, the various currents of air, as the air rushes into the tube, will enter from various directions, being deflected and turned by the peripheral flange 12 so as to strike upon the boil of cotton in various directions and insure its separation from the husk.

That which I claim as my invention anti desire to secure by Letters Patent is,

1. A cotton-picker, consisting of an inner tube, and an outer tube'at the free end of the inner tube and of somewhat greater diameter'leaving a space between'said tubes and having at its engaging end a radial flange.

2. In a cotton picker, the combination with suction mechanism, of a nozzle adapted to engage a boll of cotton at its free end and having at its engaging end a thin radially-projecting flange adapted to deflect currents of air striking it and direct them laterally against a bollof cottonat the engaging end of said nozzle, substantially as described.

3. .A piCkEI'JIOZZlG for pneumatic cotton-pickers, consisting of an inner tube, and an outer tube mounted thereon of somewhat greater diameter than the'inner tubeand projecting a short distance beyond it and having at its engaging end a radial flange.

4. In a picker-nozzle for pneumatic cotton-pickers, the combination with an inner tube, an outer tube of somewhat greater diameter mounted thereon to leave a space between said tubes, and a radial flange upon the engaging end of said outer tube.

5. In a picker-nozzle for pneumatic cotton-pickers, the combination with an inner tube, an outer tube mounted thereon with space between the outer surface of said inner tube and vthe inner surface of said, outer tube, said outer tube projecting somewhat beyond the end of the inner tube andbeing provided at its engaging end with a radial flange, substantially as described.

' WOODBURY K. DANA.

Witnesses: Lnn MALTBIn DEAN, WILLIAM LYONS. C 

